Ghostbusters Collectables

Title: Ghostbusters Collectables
Author: Matt MacNabb
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 9781445654300

Timing is everything and this Ghostbusters Collectables book comes ahead of the release of a new all-female film featuring the famous Ghostbusters title… although it’s meant to be a re-imagining of the series. As a result of the resurgence in interest, it’s likely plenty of fans will be keen to reminisce about the older films and popular cartoon series.

The original film was released in June 1984 and became a cultural phenomenon and an instant classic, reaching number 28 in the American Film Institute’s top 100 comedies of all time and voted funniest film of the past 25 years by Entertainment Weekly in 2008. The release of the film marked the beginning of a franchise that would include a sequel, comics, television series and action figures.

In this 96-page book, author and collector Matt MacNabb takes a look at the best of Ghostbusters collectables, including action figures of the four Ghostbusters themselves, some of the most famous ghosts from the films and models of Ecto-1. It’s split into seven chapters: the original film, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, Ghostbusters II merchandise, The Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon, the modern era and the future. One of the more controversial chapters is one inspired by Filmation’s The Ghost Busters 1975 cartoon, which doesn’t have anything to do with the likes of Peter Venkman and pals, so some hardcore fans may find its presence here a little confusing.

That aside and the best chapter is, without doubt, the one that details the toys inspired by the 1986 cartoon The Real Ghostbusters. Kenner – most famous for its range of Star Wars toys – produced a host of Ghostbusters products and MacNabb guides you through dozens of them, including figures, vehicles, costumes and more. For many, these toys will be the ones they remember playing with as a child, so it’s great they’re covered in such great detail.

What’s particularly interesting are some of the rare mail-away items, like the Peter Venkman lenticular watch and holographic cereal boxes, along with the McDonald’s Happy Meal toys because it’s amazing that anyone had the foresight to keep these when they were originally released. Perhaps the only element that’s missing from MacNabb’s book is a reference to how much some of these items might be worth. Ghostbusters appears to be one of the growing areas of collectables, so that would have been handy to give people a reference as to how much their collection might be worth.